


paper folded.

by MorbidOptimist



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F, Gen, Origami, paper cranes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2019-01-31 11:48:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12681276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorbidOptimist/pseuds/MorbidOptimist
Summary: Jinx has seen her more times than she could count, sitting in a hole in the wall cafe that almost never closed. She hasn't ever really talked to her. Hasn't seemed to care that she's there. That would be fine enough, should have been, fine enough, Jinx thinks; except she thinks about the Titan far too much, and it's all because of those tiny paper birds.





	paper folded.

Jinx pulled her jacket taught against the drizzling wind and exhaled a shaky, visible breath through the damp precipitation. 

She passed by a man, nicked his wallet; she tripped shortly after, her powers the cause and effect. 

When she righted herself, she was more moist then she had been, having landed in a puddle; she shook herself a bit and continued onwards. 

Once she had put a little distance between her and her unobservant mark, Jinx inspected the wallet to find a meager but doable amount to work with inside. 

She continued along the street until she came to store front’s mailbox; she pocketed the cash and stuffed wallet inside. The postal service would return the ID at least, and that was good enough for Jinx. 

Deciding that she had been out in the cold long enough, Jinx opted to venture to a small cafe that always reliably open, no matter the weather or hour of night. 

It took a few minutes to get to, especially as Jinx wasn’t in anything of a hurry; her leisurely stroll was something of a habit, as of late. 

With the Hive’s written exams looming on the horizon, Jinx was using any means to stay as relaxed and procrastinatory as possible. 

As a result, she was the school’s likely candidate for valedictorian, which she was going for, and in an odd turn of events, she had found herself routinely in an odd position, which had come as a complete surprise. 

She wasn’t always there of course; duty called and Jinx was sure that other times the Titan simply had other things to do, but still. 

Every time she walked up to the establishment, she scanned the time-worn window for her silhouette and found herself relieved and scared when the girl proved to be there. 

She walked up to the familiar window and peered inside. 

Within, the Titan rested; keeping to herself as always. 

Jinx took a moment to adjust herself; wipe the excess of water from her jacket and wring the gloom from her limp hanging hair.

The door opened with a jingle of a bell, and Jinx took a moment to look around. 

The tiny stage was packed with speakers and microphones, but was devoid of sentient occupants, as was most of the cafe. There was an attendant milling around in the backroom, but other than them and Raven, the place was empty.

Jinx walked over to the counter and waited for the attendant to notice her, not yet feeling any need to break the relative silence. 

Over the building's speakers, was a light low volume string of a tired rock ballad, and it paired well with the gentle tapping of the window warding off the rain. 

Another set of sounds, came from Raven’s table.

As always, the Titan was seated, a stack of paper to her left, a miniature militia of paper cranes to her right.  

Jinx had watched, on more than one night, sit for a few hours, sitting quietly and folding paper birds. 

What she did when them or why the Titan needed so many, she had no idea. 

The Titan simply took them with her when her body became darkness, and her darkness ceased to be. 

Raven took no notice of her staring, having been used to her presence in the cafe several visits before; there was something of an unspoken truce about the place in the low light hours of the night.

Jinx would stumble in, nurse a drink or two; sometimes study up on a subject or two or doddle along the pages of her sketchbook, and lately, she had taken to working out problems for her exams across scattered notes jotted onto unfolded napkins. By the time dawn began to leak color back into the horizon however, Jinx’s attention would almost always return the Titan. She would watch her collect her birds as the light pressed delicately against the girl’s face. 

She bit her lip. 

Accepting that her powers would likely ruin her evening at her change in events, she swallowed her concern and decided to push her luck. 

The attendant came back; quietly, Jinx ordered two of her usual order. 

She was glad that the hot chocolate didn’t take long to make; she had been staring rather intently at the Titan, and she was sure the girl knew something was up from the way the girl’s face turned toward her every so often. 

She kept folding the birds however, and that kept Jinx mostly at ease when the attendant burned their hand with the scalding chocolate infused liquid.  

It also kept her at ease when the cups nearly burned  _ her _ hands, with the scalding hot beverages inside. 

She took a light breath, and walked slowly to the Titan. 

Ignoring the part of her mind that screamed at her that offering gifts of food was poor taste at best, she set one of the cups near the neat rows of cranes just out of the way from the girl’s still folding hands. 

As Jinx sat down across from her, she set her own cup in front of her and willed its warmth to seep into the rest of her body with little result. 

She didn’t dare speak, not yet; she’d wait to see at her next visit, if the Titan would return. 

Instead, she watched, quietly, and tried to keep her hands from fidgeting as they were wont to. 

It was nearly half past the witching hour, when Raven paused her folding long enough to take a sip. 

 

When Jinx returned to the cafe, the night was clear but still thick with Autumn chill. 

She ordered two drinks once more, and walked over to the Titan’s table.

She placed a drink before Raven, before seating herself and determinedly, tasked herself to sit as quietly as possible.  

She watched the Titan’s fingers, too nervous yet to glance at her face. 

They bent the paper with relaxed precision, each repeated crease nearly identical to her last, every bird birthed silently into being as the one before it.

After a while, Jinx’s leg started to bounce and she bit her lip as she tried to still it. 

Raven’s eyes flickered to her, looking her over. 

Jinx’s pulse raced as her breathing stopped. 

Raven’s eyes returned her birds.

Jinx pulled her legs onto her lap to keep them from misbehaving. 

Raven took from her cup more often; and with every sip, Jinx dared to risk one of her own. 

 

Several nights and early mornings were spent in this manner; Jinx bringing the Titan a drink before claiming the seat across from her as her own. 

As the visits strengthened in number, and the Titan began welcoming the drinks, Jinx began fetching her additional ones, and now and then, when her funds and bravery and luck allowed it, bought a few remaining snacks from the counter to share.

Raven would eat the occasional treat, pausing her paper folding long enough to steadily consume the baked good bite by bite.  

Jinx wouldn't call her eating habits dainty, but she readily considered them efficient. And there was something incredibly comforting about that, Jinx thought.  

Her own eating habits were somewhat lacking in finesse, she’d be the first to admit. 

The Hive didn’t cover table manners except in the espionage levels, and Jinx hadn’t yet been cleared for those. 

Still, the food something to do with her hands, for which she was grateful. 

She usually wanted to bring something with her, to feel somewhat less awkward, but wouldn't think of anything that wouldn’t encroach on the space needed for Raven’s cranes. 

The birds themselves were small and tempting to touch; but unlike the keychains and iridescent pearls she fingered and pocketed without reserve, Jinx found herself too hesitant to touch the paper creatures, for fear risking their creator’s wrath or worse, accidentally hexing them by placing her hands on them alone. 

 

At some point, she figured that the near-nightly routine she had established with the Titan, and the restlessness with her, was the likely culprit behind her newfound habit of toying with her piercings and shirt cuffs. 

This thought, and the realization that she had been doing it at all, was only made apparent to Jinx however, when she suffered the misfortune of ripping out her favorite lip ring. 

Surprised, and in pain, she clamped her hands over her mouth and froze. 

Raven looked up at her gasp and grew a visible expression of some kind as she stared at her. 

With a sickening horror, Jinx realized that her blood had seeped between her fingers and dribbled onto one of the paper cranes, marring its natural silver paisley pattern with droplets of red. 

Slowly, Raven blinked, turned her head, and pulled a napkin from the canister at the end of the table and offered it to her. 

Jinx took it, wincing both at the pain in her lip and from the added drops of her bodily vitae falling onto more of the paper birds in the process. 

As Jinx pulled her hand away to press the napkin to it, Raven caught sight of the wound before she could turn her head from the girl.

Embarrassed, and frankly, a little alarmed for the rip in her lip, Jinx all but vaulted from the table, knocking it and send several birds flying in the process. 

By the time Jinx had gotten home and patched herself up, it was well after dawn.  

 

Jinx suffered several sleepless nights; too scared to return to the cafe, and too nauseous get to sleep as she counted paper cranes in her head.  

 

The next time Jinx came to the cafe, her brave face in place, she noticed something sitting on the table in the place Jinx usually rested her drink.  

It was small, round, and looked remarkably like a ring. 

She sat and looked at it for a minute, before setting her drink aside. 

She looked at the Titan; there was no hint of animosity across her features, or any of concern.

Jinx looked back at the ring. 

Part of her mind screamed at her that accepting gifts was a dangerous decision at best. 

However, her desire to not pick up the shiny piece of jewelry was vastly outweighed by the part of her that desired to pick up the shiny piece of jewelry. 

She picked it up. 

She eyed Raven, as she held it in her fingers. 

The girl didn’t react. 

Curious, she inspected the ring, and noticed that as she turned it, a band within the ring started to spin. 

She spent several minutes spinning the ring band this way and back, as Raven folded her cranes. 

It was a welcome relief, as much as Jinx was able to measure, to bat at the tiny contraption. 

She found herself growing incredibly fond over the ring, over the course of the evening. 

As she went back to watching Raven fold her birds, she smiled, the feeling of restlessness all but vanished, yet contained neatly along the gentle thrum of the spinning ring. 

At a beep from somewhere in the Titan’s clothes, nearly an hour before her usual time, Raven rose. 

Jinx watched her sweep the birds and stack of paper into her shadowy grasp and nearly forgot to offer the ring back to her. 

However, when the Titan vanished, she left the ring in Jinx’s hand.

Across from her, remained a single, ivory crane. 

 

With the finals behind her, Jinx really didn’t have a viable excuse to continue treading back to the cafe every other night. 

But still, she frequented. 

Still, she sat and watched. 

Quietly, she still wore the spinning ring. 

Quieter still, Raven folded her paper birds. 

  
  


After a few visits more, numbered enough that Jinx had lost count, she decided that she dared to speak. 

“What do you do with them all?”

The question hung between them like mist; light and altogether not quite present. 

Jinx was only sure she had spoken, for the feel of the movement lingering in her body and bone.

She spun her ring quietly, and gave herself to the possibility that Raven would likely not answer. 

She was fine with that; furthermore expected it. 

“I give them to strangers.” 

The night continued in relative silence.

 

Later the next morning the words lingered airily in her mind.  

 

Across another span of visits, Jinx decided to try. 

 

She went to the cafe early; spending the day from brunch to lunch to far past dinner, watching the people and replacing her drink whenever she ran dry. 

She was there before Raven, which was an unprecedented event. 

She held her breath as the Titan walked in. 

Raven walked over to the counter and placed a sizable tip in the jar; confirming a quiet suspicion to the nature of Raven’s continued allowance to mill about the place. 

When the Titan turned, she caught sight of her and her eyes widened in surprise. 

Jinx turned her gaze away and waited for the girl to approach. 

Raven slid into the seat slowly, no doubt taking in the sight of a small square cut of paper in front of her.  

Raven refrained from pulling out any paper of her own; Jinx could practically feel the way the Titan’s eyes watched her. 

Jinx held her breath, and began to fold. 

Corner to corner and back once more, back to back and smoothed over; Jinx pressed the page and smoothed the corners. 

It had taken her many, many times, and many, many papercuts and spontaneously combusted tries, but her muscle memory was finally good enough to work the paper as she wanted. 

It wasn’t as pretty as the ones Raven made; truth be told Jinx wasn’t even sure she folded it correctly. 

She only tried to replicate what she had watched, and held the newly birthed paper creation aloft in her palm.

Jinx slid the bird over to Raven who took it, with a mixture of emotion in her face. 

She seemed pleased by it, which filled Jinx with a sense of pride and recklessness.

As Raven looked to her, Jinx nodded at the table, drawing the Titan’s attention.   

Wordlessly, she set the bird down, and glanced down at the other two papers in front of her that she hoped had been concealed by the first.

Jinx started to fold the top one, pressing more confidence into every fold for how long she had spent learning to mold it step by step. 

Raven leaned forward, her arms tucked neatly against the edge of the table. 

Jinx looked at her and wet her lips before biting them as she continued to fold. 

After a moment she set it down, and started working on the final sheet. 

This was the tricky part, and the one Jinx cared the most about, after her attempt of a crane. 

She worked on it slowly, counting each step in her mind as she went, until the final fold was creased. 

With the new creation in her palm, she took the other on the table and worked them into each other until they reached a cohesive whole. 

She exhaled a light breath, and held the paper rose for Raven to take. 

Slowly, Raven lifted a hand to take the rose from her fingertips. 

She turned it, this way and that and Jinx felt herself sink into her seat, as if she had performed some great feat. 

Raven looked over the rose a few moments more, then set it gingerly on the table in front of her. 

There was a soft smile to her lips. 

Jinx felt it was a near mirror to the one on her own.

 

 


End file.
